ENSURING STATISTICAL

LITERACY FOR PRE-SERVICE

EDUCATION MAJORS

Stacy M. Bjorkman, Ph.D., NCSP

Walden University

&

Kelly H. Summers

Northern Illinois University

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

In almost every state there has been a shift in the way teachers are evaluated.

Most states are including student achievement data as part of the teacher evaluation process.

Teachers’ livelihoods depend on knowing about assessments.

Most education degree programs do not include coursework in statistics.

ENSURING STATISTICAL LITERACY

Determine the role of assessments in the teacher evaluation process in your state.

Build a pre-service workshop that discusses the role of assessments in teacher evaluations.

Design the workshop so the focus is on statistical concepts with real-world educational data.

Include key components of assessment and statistical literacy in the workshop.

Be sure to include frequent checks for understanding.

POSSIBLE CONCEPTS TO INCLUDE IN A PRE-SERVICE WORKSHOP

Summative vs. Formative Assessments The concept of reliability The concept of validity Measures of central tendency and variability Reading various types of graphs Types of test scores

KEY DIFFERENCES IN FORMATIVE & SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

Summative Formative

Reasons for Assessing Document individual or group achievement or mastery of standards; measure achievement status at a point in time for purposes of reporting

Increase achievement; to help students meet more standards; support ongoing student growth

To Inform Others about students Students about themselves

Focus of Assessment Achievement standards for which schools, teachers, and students are held accountable

Specific achievement targets selected by teachers that enable students to build toward standards

Driving Force Accountability Improvement

Place in time Event after learning is supposed to have happened

Process during learning

Chapius, J. & Chapius, C. (2002). Understanding school assessment: A parent and community guide to helping students learn. Assessment Training Institute: Portland, OR.

THE CONCEPT OF RELIABILITY

What do we mean by reliable? The consistency of a measurement tool Not good or bad, just consistent

Want to minimize “measurement error” Test-taker variables

Hot, cold, noise, lack of sleep, lack of food, etc. Test administration

Lack of standardization either knowingly or unwittingly Test scoring and interpretation

Is the test more subjective? Then there will likely be more measurement error.

TYPES OF RELIABILITY TO CONSIDER

Inter-rater reliability: consistency between scorers

Test-retest reliability: variability over time for one person’s score

Internal consistency: How well the items on a test measure the same construct

WHAT EXACTLY IS VALIDITY?

What do we mean by a valid measure?A judgment or estimate of how well

a test measures what it purports to measure in a particular context

Reliability is solely a statistical measure

Validity is determined statistically as well as through common sense judgments

CENTRAL TENDENCY

Mean, Median, Mode Range Standard deviation

Consider the impact of… Small sample sizes

Range restriction & outliers High & low achieving students

WHAT’S IN A SCORE?

Raw scores How many items a test taker got correct

Standard score A raw score that has been converted from one

scale to another scale Percentiles

Divides performance into 100 equal parts Percentage correct

THANK YOU! PLEASE CONTACT US WITH

QUESTIONS

stacy.bjorkman@waldenu.edu

&

Ksummers@niu.edu